Thatcher's son to plead guilty over coup plot

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Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of former British prime minister
Margaret Thatcher, will plead guilty in South Africa to charges of
funding an attempted coup plot in Equatorial Guinea, according to
legal sources.

Thatcher, 51, was arrested on August 25 last year at his Cape
Town villa in South Africa on charges of contributing $361,000 to
help finance the suspected plot to overthrow longtime Equatorial
Guinea leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

The office of the public prosecutor in South Africa said today
that he is to make an unexpected court appearance in Cape Town
tomorrow.

Baroness Thatcher said she was "very relieved" to hear of the
deal reached between South African prosecutors and her son .

"She is very relieved that matters have now been settled and
that the worry of these last few months is now over," a spokesman
for Baroness Thatcher said.

A source close to Mark Thatcher told AFP said in Cape Town that
he will plead guilty to charges of bankrolling an alleged coup plot
in Equatorial Guinea tomorrow.

"The deal was proposed by the state two months ago to Mark
Thatcher. He gets off with a fine and he becomes a free man and he
can go back to see his wife in America," the source said.

The Guardian newspaper reports legal sources as saying
that Thatcher will admit to financing a helicopter to take part in
the plot in exchange for a suspended five-year jail sentence and a
270,000 fine.
The paper says he had thought the helicopter was to be
used as an air ambulance but will admit being negligent in not
reporting it might be put to suspicious use.

Thatcher was arrested on August 25 last year at his Cape Town villa
in South Africa